CH25: George Arriola

An heirloom electronic for the post-smartphone era

When was the last time you sat down with friends or family and someone’s phone didn’t interrupt? George Arriola and the team at Monohm, wanted to “refocus the users’ attention to real people and the real world.” Their answer was the personal device Runcible which debuted at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona earlier this year and not only breaks the mold in terms of …

Inventors Create a Salt-Water Powered Lamp

A team of Philippines-based inventors has created a lamp that runs solely off of salt water. Taking advantage of the same science behind battery-making, the innovative lamp is able to safely and reliably convert water’s salinity into energy, powering the device for up to eight hours off of a single glass of salt water. The new technology is especially useful in the Philippines, where the …

“Light Recipes” are Creating Tastier Crops

Though they’re efficient at accelerating the growth of plants, fertilizers can produce unhealthy side effects. To avoid this, the GrowWise center—a Netherlands-based research lab—considers the other crucial aspect of photosynthesis: light. By playing with a mix of red and blue lights, the Philips-owned LED laboratory has found ways to drastically improve the quality of crops without having to add any artificial nutrients. “Light recipes” can …